Alps village

[nuno81291]

Talk about selective compression... my latest project is a long time coming; a bookshelf with a small scenery focused layout inspired by my time in the German and Austrian Alps. I have put off n scale modeling due to illness and trouble working on n scale mechanisms; however this project should not require too much in that regard and is more scenery focused: a diorama of a small mountain village with a rack railway, cable car and passenger station. This is very loosely based on the system at Garmisch Partenkirchen which is a stone throw from where my in laws live. To test my hand at n scale I tried this kibri chalet:

Still needs weathering and work on the baseplate (earth, paver coloring and some grass/shrubbery).

I am not totally set on a track plan (which will look something like an oval for the DB commuter rail) and a point to point more or less for the rack railway. I intend to buy a handful more of the alpine looking offerings before I sketch out the village (I forgot how small these are...) may not bother with anyrail for this as a napkin sketch I think will suffice. Anyways I have a few weeks worth of buildings to create before I worry about the “layout” proper. Meanwhile I am slowly plugging away at the HO layout so I can run trains again.

[nuno81291]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ] Well I pulled the trigger on a modern DB commuter set by Piko. Here is a rough tentative plan and sketch:

Only criteria is my rack and now DB train are not squeezed to a minimum radius (it will be tight..).

The general idea is a commuter rail station interchange with the rack railway on the “town” side, the rack railway then meanders around the large bridge in the foreground (faller bietschtal), hugging the ravine walls until it makes its way to the alpine village. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

A station by the cable car and smal village before it ascends up the “mountain” perhaps with a semi see through tunnel so I can call it a “funicular”. Anyways I have a handful of kits to build before I do some testing of the limits of the rack railway. This should be a fun layout to scenic and have as a mindless loop rather than ops focus... i have some smal peco switches and am wondering where I could either put a smal runaround for the rack railway or a car barn spur but it is very tight, perhaps down the line I can expand with another module. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

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Better get building... 

[Scottl]

It looks really interesting to me.  What type of DB train is it? The Talent units by Piko are excellent.

[nuno81291]

It looks really interesting to me.  What type of DB train is it? The Talent units by Piko are excellent.

Yes the 5 car talent set. They look very nice online. I would like to eventually pick up an ICE and Piko’s Coradia which looks familiar to me. In the distant future I could see making an ops based layout of the junction at Garmisch with staging and all but for now this is just planned to be a rather large diorama. Playing in anyrail with some peco turnouts I have to see if I can stick a car barn/engine facility and runaround for the rack railway... an ops based rack layout in N, 

[Scottl]

I had the n scale Talents and those were great, the HO should be excellent.  I rode one every day I lived in Germany a few years ago so they are modern DB in my mind.   I'm not sure what the operation part of the layout would be, but I'm interested in following the build.  Great scenic opportunities and lots of HO structures available too.

[nuno81291]

Perhaps because I mentioned the HO layout you may have misread my OP? This whimsical German inspired layout is N scale. As far as ops on this layout my goal would be to have a commuter and ICE train doing laps on the main, while the rack railway would have potential for “ops” by adding a runaround, and a small enginehouse. I imagine the ops entailing something of the retro Zugspitzebahn operation: a valley loco would bring cars to the the base of the mountain where a different engine would take it up the mountain. Other than that you could add a MOW train perhaps for variety. That would be great if I can make a portion of this “playable” so to speak. However,

My end goal would be a fairly large (room sized) ops based layout depicting the large passenger terminal and junction at Garmisch Partenkirchen. You could feed the modeled portion with dual ended staging, and model a more faithful or larger portion of villages and the rack and cable railway up the Zugspitze. Of course modeling that would be insane and what would come to fruition would be just a larger caricature of my current plan with more of a focus on the actual mainline rail that is there...

[Scottl]

Even better, n will give you room to stretch the scenery.  The n scale Piko trains were really nice.

[nkalanaga]

OK, I'm sure that prototype photo is the Glacier Express, but does anyone know where it was taken?

[nuno81291]

Unfortunately that screen grab did not give a location. Something like 90 tunnels on that route.. 

Finished up the bones of a smaller residence, digital back drop included


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[Brian M]

OK, I'm sure that prototype photo is the Glacier Express, but does anyone know where it was taken?

Can't help with a specific location, other than somewhere along the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB), which handles the Glacier Express between Zermatt and Disentis (Switzerland).

edit: Ok, I can help with the specific location.  I came across the same picture on the MGB Wikipedia page.  Caption says the train is near Stalden.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matterhorn_Gotthard_Bahn#/media/File:GlacierStalden.jpg

-Brian.

[nkalanaga]

Brian:  Thank you!  I didn't think that was an RhB locomotive, and it didn't look like any of the scenes I've seen on the FO (MGB), for which I have several OLD videotapes, and a book.  I don't have much on the BVZ (MGB).

[nuno81291]

Finished up the bones of another structure. Lost a part to the floor  and keeping some finishing details off until weathering and installing on the layout. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[engineshop]

Since I am building exactly that railway line from Visp to Zermatt (old BVZ line of the MGB) I got some of the pictures in that area.


Newest Glacier Express coaches crossing the Faulkinn bridges beween Stalden and Kalpetran.

Another part of the line is actually my favorite. The Kipfer Gorge. 





A little bit more information can be found here:

http://usloki.tripod.com/layout.htm

[nkalanaga]

Roland:  Great pictures!  That first one, of the Faulkinn bridges, is the same location as the earlier picture, so now we know exactly where it is.

The old BVZ has some great scenery, from what little I've seen reading about the Glacier Express.